


Trip Switch

by Lunarium



Category: City of Hunger (Video Game)
Genre: Difficult Decisions, Grief/Mourning, M/M, Minor Character Death, Stranded
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-05
Updated: 2018-06-05
Packaged: 2019-06-19 02:49:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15500643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lunarium/pseuds/Lunarium
Summary: Two men are stranded on a mountain range after an avalanche causes their train to crash, but one of them has no plans of being rescued.





	Trip Switch

**Author's Note:**

> (backdated fic) Written for both H/C Bingo's May Amnesty Challenge, in which my prompts were: _deadline / time bomb, stranded / survival scenario, cursed, broken bones._
> 
>  
> 
> _Also written for Small Fandom Fest. Prompt was:_  
>  _"Make a wish and I'll count to three_  
>  Press the button and we'll both be happy  
> Sending signals is a dirty trick  
> I get my love in a digital packet  
> Trip switch, trip switch"  
> (Trip Switch - Nothing But Thieves)

He wakes up to lightly falling snow. Sharp aches sear through his body, and the scream gargles up his throat. 

A hand touches the back of his head and a soothing sound issues from the other’s lips. 

“Don’t move,” he says gently. “I am healing you right now, and everything I do will unravel if you move suddenly.” 

Lalli blinks. There is red above him, but it is not his blood. Light glimmers on the edges. Hair.

The healer’s hair frames around him like a mane, and his green eyes brighten along with his kind smile. 

“Luck must feel it hasn’t been on your side, yeah?” he says as he continues working. “Broken ribs on top of everything else you’ve gone through. Must feel like you were cursed.” Lalli knows the man is referring to his limbs, all of which had long ago been replaced by bionic ones. Lalli himself had altered them. They had better suited him, for his every need. And his body had been dying. 

And he could hide things in them. 

Pain shot through him again and he struggled to breathe. 

He could just make out the small object his fingers were still curled around. How much time had passed? Panicking, he presses the button; better to stop the time now. 

He _was_ cursed, but after today he could be free. Everything was perfectly timed, and if anything went wrong, if his target was a moment too late, one press of the button in the palm of his hand would disarm the bombs that now lined the entirety of the train tracks of the weaving mountains. With another set of commands he can easily reactivate them. 

“Luck must be turning for the better for you,” the good-looking man continued. The universal symbol of First Responders was wrapped around his arm. “Most have died along with the avalanche. But I survived. Maybe it was fate, so I may help you. I’m Reynir, by the way.” His smile could have lit up the icy sun itself and melt the entire snow around them, and for that alone Lalli wanted to smack him. 

“You will be well, my friend.” His hand covered over Lalli’s lower rib, and Lalli sighed under the soft warm touch.

*

Reynir discovers Tuuri and had been speaking with her for the last couple hours, trying to get her to reroute until she could locate some region where a response is feeble, where anyone—anyone—could pick up their distress signal. 

Except Lalli is not distressed, despite their official status as two stranded individuals in a wide snow mountain range with no promise of rescue. The nearest city was at least a distance of seventy-four hours on foot, not taking any inclement weather to account. 

And the train would be coming. 

One carefully-timed bomb, one more series of explosions, and it would all end. His suffering, the suffering of countless others by the hands of a cruel ruler of this ice-starved planet, the cold and satisfying revenge for the cousin whose name lived on in the device Reynir now uses. 

The pain in Lalli’s ribs, still aching every now and again, would be nothing to their deaths. But the rest of the world would become free of the tyranny that has shadowed over them for many years. 

Reynir keeps poking her, keeps asking her to reroute, to search again, as Lalli keeps his eyes glued to the curve of the mountain range.

*

“Honestly, it’s like you’re _refusing_ to find us help!” Reynir chuckles as he affectionately strokes the side of the communicator device. Technology always had moments of breaking down or disappointing you, or refusing to work when you wished them to most, but Reynir found that charming of them. Like humans in a way. 

Tuuri hums in his palm and Reynir registers the sensation as fear. 

“Is something all right, Tuuri?” he asks. “I have not overexerted you, I hope?” 

The communicator in his hand buzzes differently, and he registers it as something much different. Hesitation. 

“Tuuri?” 

“It is Lalli,” Tuuri finally responds. “I am afraid he does not wish for us to survive beyond this point. He wants to die here with the Empress when she reaches the mountains. He does not plan to be rescued but die in the bombing along with the train. He already had everything set up.” 

A hand clamps over his, lifting Tuuri from his open palm. Looking up Reynir meets Lalli’s steady gaze as he pockets her. 

“She’s not wrong,” Lalli says. “She was once my cousin. She fell ill. We could not get help from the higher branches of government. The Empress’s…ah, _generosity_ extended only so far. Tuuri didn’t make it in the end.” 

“And this is how you wish to honor her memory?” Reynir says. 

Lalli makes to leave but Reynir calls after him, though he keeps the anger steady in his voice. 

“I understand you’re angry—I’ve had many die in my arms because the Empress does not equalize care among all of her people. You’re letting her win if you die along with her. Another Empress or Emperor will take her place. They’ll only replace one vermin with another! Is it worth dirtying your hands over?” 

“Shut up! And what are we? Are we nothing but vermin to them?” 

Lalli storms off, but when Reynir finally looks away, that’s when Lalli glances back.

*

The pain in his side is subsiding. He remembers how warm Reynir’s hand was on his side.

If he carries through with this plan, Reynir will die too. 

Rage nearly possess Lalli into insanity as he stands there waiting. They’re hours early. The avalanche had messed with their schedule. Now the power to switch on the bomb rests in his hand. 

_Flip the switch and we’ll both be happy._ He smiles sadly, thinking of Tuuri. 

He turns around to watch the sun illuminating Reynir’s features. How many patients have relied on him? How many will mourn his death? 

_Flip the switch and we’ll both be happy._ He blinks back a tear he hadn’t noticed. What sort of brighter future was just at the tips of his fingers, if only he searched out for it, seeking it instead of revenge? 

In the distance came the faint roar of a train. The Empress’s ride was passing at last. 

One flip of the switch, and the time-bomb will reactivate. 

He notices Reynir tense up. 

Sucking in a breath, Lalli pockets the inactivated timer and reaches for Tuuri instead. 

“Tuuri, reroute location for a rescue distress call.”


End file.
